05/26 Cubs (Maholm) @ Pirates (Correia) 06:15 FOX

[Little Slide Rooter]

It's become obvious that Theo built this team to bottom out this year and while they may be worse than even he anticipated, as long as they come out of the season with the number 1 pick, the season will be a success as it relates to his long term plan. I would probably expect an offseason similar to last year and a season similar to this one next year.

 

Christ, then he's a [expletive] moron and I'm sorry they ever got him. "Built this team to bottom out?" Shooting for the #1 pick like this is basketball or football? What the [expletive]? This is how we've come to rationalize things? This is baseball; if you've got good scouting/a good front office/good talent evaluation you can easily make later draft picks work and then some. Of course I didn't expect them to be world beaters, but to try and justify like they want/tolerate/tried/whatever to be the worst team in baseball is ridiculous.

 

Are you sure you're not talking Rachel Phelps? Even if he were to build a team to "bottom out", on paper the roster isn't that bad and there's no way he would have expected it to be worse than the Astros, Padres, and Twins to name a few.

 

I think he hasn't spent yet simply because he wants to wait and see where the spending will be needed when he feels ready

 

 

-exodus of the older players that are not a part of the plan through trade or letting contracts expire. This will be mostly complete by next year. Makes the Johnson and Wood signings make even less sense, but I guess bodies are needed on the field and rather than waste service time of prospects, sign guys like this as well as Mather, Camp, and Corpas to keep roster spots warm and maybe build a bit of trade value.

 

-allow some of the younger guys who may or may not be part of his future plan to prove that they can be: Samardzjia, Barney, DeWitt, Campana, LaHair, Wells. Each he decides to keep represents a hole that won't need to be filled. The only ones with no need to prove themselves are Castro and Garza, who he'd trade only if he could sucker someone into grossly overpaying with at least 3 top prospects.

 

-acquire as many young players who have or had high ceilings as he can get his hands on and hope as many as possible pan out, again, each that does represents a hole that doesnt need to be filled: Stewart, T. Wood, Maholm, Volstad, Cardenas, Sappelt, Bowden, Sonnenstine, Bianchi, Valbuena, and of course, Rizzo. Im thinking there will be more of these to come between whenever they start selling and next offseason. My bet is in addition to whatever Dempster brings back, Soto, Marmol, and Soriano will be shipped off for whatever he can get. Could be this summer, could be next winter.

 

-hope for as much help from the farm as possible

 

-by the 2013-2014 offseason, the smoke should have cleared enough to know what we have and what we need at which time he can start spending to fill the holes. The less holes there are, the more can be spent on each. My guess is we'll need 1 big bat (corner outfielder), a 2B with a decent bat unless Cardenas ends up that, and 1 front end starter. 2 if we trade Garza.

 

The guy that doesn't seem to fit into this is DeJesus. I really think he was signed before this plan was finalized and he just saw a good player at a great value coming off of a down season.

[Sammy Sofa]

"On paper," yes, it was hardly a stretch to think the offense could be this bad. A crappy team was put on the field, and watching a big market team rebuild like this is torturous. This idea that they can't make moves until the "smoke clears" is inane. Edited May 27, 2012 by Sammy Sofa

[Sammy Sofa]

It's become obvious that Theo built this team to bottom out this year and while they may be worse than even he anticipated, as long as they come out of the season with the number 1 pick, the season will be a success as it relates to his long term plan. I would probably expect an offseason similar to last year and a season similar to this one next year.

 

Christ, then he's a [expletive] moron and I'm sorry they ever got him. "Built this team to bottom out?" Shooting for the #1 pick like this is basketball or football? What the [expletive]? This is how we've come to rationalize things? This is baseball; if you've got good scouting/a good front office/good talent evaluation you can easily make later draft picks work and then some. Of course I didn't expect them to be world beaters, but to try and justify like they want/tolerate/tried/whatever to be the worst team in baseball is ridiculous.

 

I guess my post did specifically say he was trying for the number 1 pick, but I didn't really mean it in a sense that he was sabotaging the team in order to ensure it was terrible. But at the same time he was not doing much to prevent it. He replaced the 2 best power hitters on the team with Ian Stewart and LaHair and traded his best bullpen arm away. That's not to say that Theo wanted them to fail. If Stewart played up to the potential that Theo saw in him then its a win for the Cubs. But I highly doubt that Theo replaces Ramirez with Stewart if the team was expected to contend.

 

Also bottoming out doesn't mean worst team in the league. Bottoming out with regards to the Cubs rebuilding project. Dumping contracts and/or waiting for big contracts to expire, replacing his most productive hitters with big question marks with upside, trading a solid bullpen arm because he's about to get expensive and his value as an asset has probably peaked, etc. If that results in the worst record in baseball and the #1 pick, then its a success for his long term plan.

 

Awful. A big market team like this shouldn't have to wait only for a "long term plan." Again, I wasn't expecting them to put out a world-beater this year, but I was saying it sure as [expletive] wouldn't be a stretch for this team to be worse than last year's when some people were talking like they were a lock to easily be at least or around 10 games better. I want a FO that looks to the future, but at the expense of just completely giving up a season. I'm sorry, but making your team worse just makes it that much more of an effort to improve it.